DuPage-based Cadence breaks off merger with Rockford Health

Two months after Cadence Health released plans to add the Rockford Health System to its organization, the two sides have announced the deal is off.

In a statement Friday, Cadence said it was discontinuing discussions about an affiliation with Rockford.

"In many respects we are like-minded organizations," Rockford Health System President and CEO Gary Kaatz said in a statement. "However, as we moved forward in our discussions it became clear that we would not be able to arrive at an agreement that would provide mutual benefit to both the Rockford community and the Cadence organization. After deeper review, we recognized that our strategic imperatives did not align."

Cadence, which serves some 1.1 million patients in the Western suburbs, was created in March 2011 by merging Central DuPage Health System in Winfield and Delnor Community Health System in Geneva.

The move to add Rockford, with nearly 1 million patients annually, had been in the works for months. At the time of the November announcement, Cadence CEO Mike Vivoda had characterized it as "an asset merger with a single board of directors, rather than a joint venture."

"We identified many synergies between our organizations," Vivoda said in a statement. "We realized, however, that we have some differences that would prevent us from aligning our operational strategies."

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